Understandings of evidence-based practice within a group of practising Educational Psychologists.

The drive for professionals to become more evidence-based has resulted in a climate of greater scrutiny and accountability. However the notion of evidence-based practice as a positive force in the work of practitioners is contested, particularly within the social sciences and psychology specifically. While some studies have sought to identify how the concept of evidencebased practice has been applied by practitioners, and what influences its implementation, the way in which evidence-based practice is understood by applied practitioners has as yet received little empirical attention. Employing a mixed-method design, the current study aimed to provide an empirical account of the understandings of evidence-based practice among a group of 21 qualified Educational Psychologists. The range and diversity of views were initially collected through two Focus Groups (n=6, n=7) which were analysed and interpreted using a thematic analytic approach. The resulting themes and codes provided ‘naturalistic’ statements that were used alongside ‘ready made’ statements taken from a range of sources to form a ‘concourse’ about evidence-based practice. From the resulting concourse a Q-methodological approach was used to explore the range of understandings that existed within the group of Educational Psychologists (n=20). Based on a shared interpretation of the results it appeared that a broad level of consensus existed in terms of how evidence-based practice was understood by the group, however there did appear to be philosophical differences among practitioners that may mediate the way in which understandings of evidencebased practice manifest themselves in applied settings